Washington -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The sweeping health care reform law championed by President Barack Obama was upheld as constitutional by another federal appeals court Tuesday .

The decision is not part of a half-dozen other appeals pending at the Supreme Court . The justices could decide this week whether to take on one or more of those legal challenges to the law . Those suits were brought by more than a two dozen states and a coalition of private groups and individuals .

Tuesday 's 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is a victory for the administration and its congressional supporters , but only adds to the divide among a range of federal courts over whether the law should be tossed out or severely trimmed in its scope . Three appeals court have upheld the law , while one has ruled it unconstitutional .

The majority in this latest case concluded while the assertion of federal authority in the law is large , so too is the issue Congress and the president sought to tackle .

`` The right to be free from federal regulation is not absolute , and yields to the imperative that Congress be free to forge national solutions to national problems , no matter how local -- or seemingly passive -- their individual origins , '' wrote Judge Laurence Silberman .

It is unclear whether the high court will include this latest ruling with the other pending health care cases already on its docket . The justices have scheduled a closed-door conference Thursday to consider whether to accept one or more appeals . If they do , oral arguments would likely be held in March , with a ruling by June .

One of the other challenges involves a 26-state coalition opposing the law . A federal appeals court in Atlanta , considering that suit , had earlier found a key provision of the law to be unconstitutional .

The key issue is whether the `` individual mandate '' section -- requiring nearly all Americans to buy health insurance by 2014 or face financial penalties -- is an improper exercise of federal authority . The states also say that if that linchpin provision is unconstitutional , the entire law with its 450 or so sections must then be scrapped .

Virginia and Oklahoma have filed separate challenges , along with other groups and individuals opposed to the law .

The justices now have the discretion to either frame the case around the `` severability '' question -- whether the individual mandate section can be separated from the rest of the law -- or expand it to include other legal questions raised in the appeals .

Two other appeals have split on the individual mandate 's constitutionality , a `` circuit split '' that all but assures the Supreme Court will decide the matter ultimately .

The states say individuals can not be forced to buy insurance , a `` product '' they may neither want nor need .

The Justice Department has countered the states ' argument by saying that since every American will need medical care at some point in their lives , individuals do not `` choose '' to participate in the health care market . Federal officials cite 2008 figures of $ 43 billion in uncompensated costs from the millions of uninsured people who receive health services , costs that are shifted to insurance companies and passed on to consumers .

Health care reform , a top Democratic priority since the Truman administration , was passed by the previous Congress in a series of virtually party-line votes . Obama signed the act into law in March 2010 . The law is widely considered to be the signature legislative accomplishment of the president 's first two years in office .

Among other things , the measure was designed to help millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans receive adequate and affordable health care through a series of government-imposed mandates and subsidies . The federal government stated in court briefs that 45 million Americans last year were without health insurance , roughly 15 % of the country 's population .

Critics have equated the measure to socialized medicine , fearing that a bloated government bureaucracy would result in higher taxes and diminished health care services .

Opponents derisively labeled the measure `` Obamacare . '' Republican leaders , who captured the House of Representatives in the midterm elections , have vowed to overturn or severely trim the law .

The case decided Tuesday is Seven-Sky v. Holder -LRB- 11-5047 -RRB- .

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The ruling follows several others by appeals courts on the health reform legislations

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Congress must `` be free to forge national solutions to national problems , '' the court says

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The Supreme Court could decide this week on which challenges to hear